Shopian Rape Case: SC To Hear Copsí Plea Against Arrest

19 July 2009Zeenews

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Monday hear a petition filed by senior police officers held in connection with the alleged rape and murder of two women in Shopian. The cops had moved the SC on Friday seeking stay of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court order directing their arrest and collection of blood samples for preparing the DNA profile. The petition filed by Superintendent of Police Javed Iqbal Mattoo and Deputy SP Rohit Baskotra was mentioned before a Bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan which decided to give a hearing on Monday. The other two police officers, who were suspended and later arrested on the basis of July 15 order of the High Court, were SHO Shafiq Ahmed and Sub-inspector Gazi Abdul Rehman. Senior advocate Pravin Parekh, who appeared for Mattoo and Baskotra, said the matter was serious and needs to be heard on an urgent basis as the High Court has passed the order that their bail plea could be heard only by the Bench which delivered the order on July 15. 'The matter is serious because the High Court Bench has observed that it is with the special investigating team and with the people of Jammu and Kashmir,' Parekh said. The police officers, who challenged the High Court order said it was passed against them without making them party in the PIL filed by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association in connection with the alleged rape and murder Neelofar Jan and Aasiya Jan at Shopian.